The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-05-06
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.

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ELOQUENT DISCOURSE coNcERNlN'
GOOD AND BAD LITERATURE.
''Many OF Them Also which Used Curl
Gus Arts Brought Their Books To
gsthsv. and Burned Them Before Al
Man." e& SF}W Nf "
BROOKLYN, May lat the tabernacle thi
morning the pastor, the Rev. 7. Do Wit
Talmage, d. D., expounded some Of the Pro
verbs Of Solomon. The congregation SAM
with magnificent effect the hymn beginning;
Arm Of the Lord awakei awaka
Put on thy strength, the nations shake.
DR.. Talmage took for his text Acts xix, 10
"Many Of them also which used curious
arts brought their books together, and burned
them before all men: and they counted thu
price Of them, and found 1t $4,000 pieces Of
silver"
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus with
some lively sermons about the sins of that
place. Among the more important results was
the fact that the citizens brought out their
bad books, and in a public place made bon.
fire Of them. see the people coming out
with their arms full of Ephesian literature,
and tossing it into the flames. hear an
economist standing by and saying: "Stop this
waste. Here are $500 worth of books-do
you propose to burn them all up9 If you don't
want to read them yourselves, sell them, and
let somebody else read them" mo-" said the
people, III these books are not good enough
for us, they are not good for anybody else,
and we shall stand and watch until the last
leaf has turned to ashes They have done us
a world Of harm, and they shall never do
others harm" Hear the flames crackle and
roar!
Well, my friends, one of the wants of the
cities of this country is great bonfire Of bad
books and newspapers. Wehave enough fuel
to make blaze 200 feet high. Many of the
publishing houses would do we'll to throw into
the blaze their entire stock of goods. Bring
forth the insufferable trash and put it into the
fire, and let it be known, in the presence OF
God, and angels, and men, that you are going
to rid your homes Of the overlapping and
underlying curse Of profigate literature.
The printing press is the mightiest agency
on the earth for good and for evil. The min
lister Of the Gospel, standing in pulpit, has a
responsible position; but do not think it is
as responsible as the position Of an editor or q
publisher. At what distant point Of time, at
what far out cycle of eternity will cease the
influence of Henry ]. Raymond, or a Horace
Greeley, or James Gordon Bennett, or a
Watson Webb, or an Erastus Brooks, or
a Thomas Kinsella7 Take the simple fact
that our New York dailies now have a circu-
lation of about $50 900 per day, and add to
it the fact that three Of our weekly period
ieals have an aggregate circulation Of about
l ,OOO, 900. and then cipher, if you can, how
far up, and how far down and how far out
reach the influences Of the American printing
press. Great God, what is to be the issue Of
all this9 believe the Lord intends the print
ing press to be the chief means for the worlds
rescue and evangelization, and l think that
the great last battle of the world will not be
fought with swords and guns, but with types
and presses-a purified and Gospel literature |
triumphing over, trampling down and crush
ing out forever that which is depraved. The |
only way to overcome unclean literature is |
by scattering abroad that which is healthful. |
May God speed the cylinders of an honest, in |
telligent, aggressive, Christian printing press.
have to tell you this morning that the
greatest blessing that ever came to this nation |
is that of an elevated literature, and the |
greatest scourge has been that of unclean
literature. This last has its victims in all oc-
and departments 1t has helped to
fill insane asylums, and penitentiaries, and
aims houses and dens of shame. The bodies of
this infection lie in the hospitals and in the
graves, while their souls are being tossed over
into lost eternity, an avalanche of horror
and despair!
The London plague was nothing to it. That
counted its victims by thousands, but this
modern pest has already shoveled its millions
into the charnel house Of the morally dead.
The longest rail train that ever ran over the
Erie or Hudson tracks was not long enough
Or large enough to carry the beastliness and
The putrefaction which have been gathered
up in bad books and newspapers Of this land
in the last twenty years.
Now, it is amid such circumstances that
put this morning question of overmaster-
ing Importance to you and your families.
What books and newspapers shall we read?
You see I group them together. A news
paper is only book in swifter and more
portable shape, and the same rules which
will apply to book reading will apply to
reading. What shall we read,
Shall our minds be the receptacle of every.
thing that an author has mind to writea Shall
CnoTe US uo OlStlnCUlOn between the tree of |
life and the tree of deaths Shall we stoon
down and drink out Of the trough which the
wickedness of men has filled with pollution
and shame9 Shall we mire in impurity and
chase fantastic will O. the wisps across the
swamps when we might walk in the bloom
ing gardens of God? Oh, no! For the sake of
Dur present and everlasting welfare we must
make an intelligent Christian choice. Stand
ing as we do chin deep in fictitious literature,
The first question that many of the young
people are asking me is: "Shall we read
novels!" reply: There are novels that are
pure, good, Christian, elevating to the heart
and ennobling to the life.| But I have still
further to say that believe that ninety-nine
,ut OF 100 novels in this day are baleful and
destructive to the last degree. A pure work
IF fiction is history and poetry combined. 1t
Is history of things around us with the
licenses and the assumed names Of poetry.
The world can never pay the debt which it
owes to such fiction writers as Hawthorne
md Mckenzie, and Landon and Hunt, and
Arthur and Marion Harland, and others
whose names are familiar to all The follies
# high life were never better exposed than
~ Miss Edgeworth. The memories Of the
,ast were never more faithfully enlbalmed
han in the writings Of Walter Scott.